Greipel benefits from Wiggins’ burst of speed in Tour

André Greipel rode the Lotto-Belisol train and in Bradley Wiggins’ wake to win the Tour de France stage in Le Cap d’Agde today. Wiggins, in the race leader’s jersey, led the peloton into the seaside town for Edvald Boasson Hagen, but Greipel benefited for his third stage win.

“Sometimes it’s easier to make that effort than to chase from the back,” Wiggins said. “You need to be careful it won’t split, sometimes you can win the Tour by one second or lose it by one second.”

Wiggins leads the Tour de France by 2-05 minutes over team-mate Chris Froome. Greipel collected his third stage win in this Tour, his first after separating his shoulder in the stage to Metz just over a week ago.

Lotto-Belisol was thinking more of its GC leader, Jurgen Van den Broeck when the race left the start in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. The Belgian sits fifth overall, 4-48 minutes back.

Once he and his team-mates crossed the steep Saint-Clair climb off the seaside, the focus turned to Greipel. Adam Hansen, Lars Bak, Jürgen Roelandts and even Van den Broeck looked after him.

Lotto’s sports director, Herman Frison joked with Cycling Weekly afterwards that now Greipel would work for Van den Broeck in the coming Pyrenean stages. He said, “Why not? You remember how he pulled in the first road leg to Seraing?”

The wind whipped off the beach, where holidaymakers enjoyed France’s national holiday, so riding at the front was the safest place. The peloton split into echelons and Sky emerged at the head with 2.3km remaining. Frison explained that he told Greipel to take advantage of its work.

“Sky came through for [Edvald] Boasson Hagen,” Frison added. “We told Greipel to get on Boasson Hagen’s wheel. Peter Sagan tried, but André won. It was beautiful.”

Wiggins rocketed around the final right hand curve as if he was leading on the velodrome. His objective was two-fold: stay safe and lead Boasson Hagen.

“It was almost like being on the track,” Wiggins said. “It felt a little bit like my [sprint] stage win in Romandie.”